Regular coffee and decaf consumption linked to survival benefits in study
TUESDAY, Nov. 17, 2015 (HealthDay News) — People who drink coffee may live longer than those who don’t — with lower risks of early mortality from cardiovascular disease and neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, according to research published online Nov. 16 in Circulation.
Frank Hu, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues based their findings on 208,501 U.S. doctors, nurses, and other health professionals who were surveyed repeatedly over almost three decades. During that time, 31,956 study participants died.
Over 30 years, nonsmokers who drank three to five cups of coffee a day were 15 percent less likely to die of any cause, versus nondrinkers. Specifically, they had lower rates of mortality from cardiovascular disease, stroke, neurological conditions, and suicide. Both regular coffee and decaf were linked to longer survival, the researchers found.
The relationship grew stronger when the researchers looked only at nonsmokers: Those who drank three to five cups of coffee a day were 15 percent less likely to die during the study period, compared with adults who didn’t drink coffee. Lower risks were even seen among the heaviest coffee drinkers (more than five cups a day), who had a 12 percent lower mortality risk than nondrinkers.
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